Methods of making decorations as raised portions on a base or substrate such as a watch dial or a bezel are known from the prior art. These methods consist in manufacturing the decorations and the base separately and then securing them to each other.
Thus, in order to fix the decorations to the base, it is known to use bonding, soldering or setting techniques.
However, these methods are not without drawbacks. Indeed, first they require a high level of precision. This precision is due to the fact that the decorations are often of very small size, i.e. of the order of the millimeter. This then requires adapting the tools used to manufacture the decorations according to the size of the decorations, in the knowledge that the smaller the size of the decorations, the more expensive the tools.
Moreover, another drawback of these methods is that the assembling process, which must be precise, generally requires human intervention, involving not simply an increase in costs but also a greater risk of assembling errors.
There is also known from FR Patent No 1,280,803 a method of making decorations on a dial. This method consists in placing a mould with pattern cavities on the dial and filling them via galvanoplasty. The mould is then removed leaving only the dial with the decorations.
One drawback of this system is that the indices are not well secured. Indeed, they are made on the surface of the dial without any means of ensuring the decorations are properly secured to said dial.
Moreover, by definition, galvanoplasty does not allow the deposition of elements over a large thickness, and this technique is therefore limited.